Despite clinical guidelines and policy promoting choice of place of birth, 14 Freestanding Midwifery Units were closed between 2008 and 2015, closures reported in the media as justified by low use and financial constraints. This paper uses an interpretative technique developed for policy analysis to explore the representation of these closures in 191 new articles to explore the public climate in which they occurred.
In writing this paper a team of researchers from University of Nottingham and City, University of London were involved.
Reference: Rayment, J., McCourt, C., Scanlon, M., Culley, L., Spiby, H., Bishop, S., de Lima, L.A. An analysis of media reporting on the closure of freestanding midwifery units in England. Women and Birth: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2018.12.012
